The Sunglari (The Golden Tower)

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Most fantasy realms and stories have the requisite dragons, treasure, adventure, busty maidens in distress, demons, unicorns, etc. They are the stuff of your dreams and nightmares. All of these stories feature some version of the classical hero: a shining knight or paladin astride a white charger, virtuous and pure in all he does. By action he teaches us what is right and wrong.
The world has changed much since the classical hero has made his entry, and he may be seen as more of a hindrance than an asset: sometimes even as a villain. The relationship that most paladins with anyone who isn't of their creed is proof that "not all bad guys wear black". With that seed of an idea, I present to you the reader: the Sunglari.

A Sunglari is at first glance, no different from the planetouched race called aasimar. They are in fact aasimar, but with a different outlook on the Multiverse. They are not evil; in fact many are lawful good. It is their alignment that causes the rest of the worlds they have visited to shun them. You see, the interpretation that Sunglari aasimar have of lawful good is tied into their cultural idea of innate superiority: we hold ourselves to a higher ideal, thus we are perfect. Those that fail to meet that ideal are imperfect and must be subjugated.

In antiquity on a far-flung sphere of the Multiverse, celestial beings from the Upper Planes observed and interacted with a race of primitive humanoids. The contact with these celestial beings gave rise to the Sunglari. Those fortunate to have mated with the celestials rose in power, as did every generation of their family line afterward. Over those years, they sought to improve their world and with their new intelligence brought innovations that would eventually catapult them to the sky and stars. They would spread across the worlds and live in harmony with everyone under every sun.

In their first interplanetary forays, they encountered many races: some helpful, most were hostile. It was during these first contact situations that the Sunglari realized harmonious feelings would only go so far. There would be much destruction, bloodshed and tears for all involved wherever these strange "peace-bombing" aasimar went, but eventually they forged an interstellar empire of note: The Sunglari Empire.

Though they ruled their galaxy in relative peace, controlling the stars in the skies of their homeworld was not enough. The Sunglari Empire would have more worlds. On one particular settling excursion, the starcaster drive malfunctioned. It launched the ship and its numerous crew into another universe--another version of the material plane. They landed in the eastern jungle region of the closest planet, cut off from their home. The settlers vowed to rebuild, to return to their homeworld.

Their soldiers defeated the native catfolk population in a series of battles with their superior technology, working them as slaves in their mines and cities for many years. One catfolk male named Kuvaroi stood against the Sunglari, using his special powers to lead the catfolk out of bondage. In their bid to maintain control, the Sunglari pushed Kuvaroi and his catfolk back to erect a more permanent barrier: the Sunshield (an energy barrier 320 ft. high, stretching across the jungle). There was a setback to the Sunshield; its harmful energies destroyed much of the jungle foliage in a generation. Fearing the end of their race due to the energies of the Sunshield, the Sunglari made a mass exodus with the technology they possessed and left behind a wealth of technology. The ironic thing about the Sunglari is that their goal was to conquer and make glorious, yet the catfolk they enslaved had no need for their technology.

Sunglari technology is far beyond current technology on Ourobouros. They held both science and technology in each hand, yet lacked the true responsibility to use it ethically. In their time on Ourobouros, they discovered cloning and other ways to cheat death, harnessing solar power as well as harnessing the powers of other planes. Much of the technology is beyond the ken of the layman, but it always fetches a high price from collectors or the National Museum of Nazcan History (located in Cairn).